“Sure I could go up to 205 and I could take Jon Jones’ belt away, the same as I could take his candy on Halloween. He’s a little punk kid,” Sonnen said about Jones. “I could snatch it away all I want, but there’s something to be said in sportsmanship for earning your shot, and on the 29th of December, I’m going to go through Forrest to do it.”

Sonnen faces Griffin at the UFC event planned for Dec. 29, but Jones didn’t waste any time responding to the outspoken former middleweight contender’s verbal jabs.

Jones took to Twitter on Wednesday to unleash on Sonnen after his comments became public on Tuesday.

“The things you say about me hold absolutely no weight,” Jones wrote on Twitter, directed at Sonnen’s social networking account. “You disrespected Anderson (Silva) and his country, but fought like a child.”

Jones is referencing Sonnen’s tirades aimed at Silva and his home country of Brazil for months before their rematch at UFC 148. Silva defeated Sonnen by second round TKO to hold onto his UFC middleweight strap.

The UFC’s reigning champion wasn’t done with Sonnen at that point either.

“If you’re going to disrespect me out of nowhere, at least disrespect me to my face like a man,” said Jones. “And you call me a punk. I’m more man than you’ll ever be.”

Jones added on the Twitter hashtags of “coward” and “cheater,” which obviously references Sonnen’s 2010 suspension from the sport for elevated levels of testosterone.

For his part, the UFC’s reigning king of the microphone didn’t take long to come back at Jones, and he took to Twitter as well with one final response.

“Oh I plan to,” wrote Sonnen. “By the way, how long did it take your parents to come up with your name, Jon Jones.

“Advice to Jon Jones. Take some of that Nike money, hire new writers.”

Sonnen then created his own Twitter hashtag with ‘creative‘ to launch an attack back at Jones and his parents.

The last message from Jones was simply a warning to Sonnen if he ever earns a shot at the UFC light heavyweight belt.

“Dude, you’re not worth my time,” said Jones. “Earn a title shot instead of trying to talk your way into one and I’ll be glad to hurt you.”

Not to be outdone, Sonnen certainly didn’t mind one final shot aimed at Jones’ recent conviction on DWI (driving while under the influence) charges in New York.

“Boarding plane to Oregon now, home of your corporate wage masters,” Sonnen said in reference to Nike’s home offices, which are based in Oregon. “Next time you are in town, knock on my door. Don’t drive.”

It certainly didn’t take long for Chael Sonnen to find a new object of aggression to focus on after exiting the UFC’s middleweight division, and it appears Jon Jones is the prime target. Jones faces one of Sonnen’s closest friends, Dan Henderson, at UFC 151 on Sept. 1 in Las Vegas.

Stay tuned to MMAWeekly.com’s UFC 151 event page for all the latest on Jones’ upcoming fight with Henderson.